Consider, incline and forget

Psalms 45:10-11 NKJV
10 Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; 11 So the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, worship Him.

The Psalmist tells us to listen, consider what is being said and incline our ear to hear more. What is being said that is so important that we need to give such attention?

The Psalmist says that we should forget our people and our father’s house. What does that mean? Who are “our people”? Who would be in “our father’s house”? I would suggest that these are the people and the influences that have molded, formed and shaped us into who we are; the significant people who have had a hand in our lives. Often these are members of our own household and family. How can I say that we should leave those influences behind? Jesus quoted from Genesis 2 when He said “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”. It is right in a marriage relationship for the couple’s families to be left behind in the forming of the new relationship and household. The home that is being built is no doubt a combination of the two family cultures yet it is to be a new and unique relationship molded and crafted by the couple themselves.

Paul then adds in Ephesians 5:32 “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” If the marriage relationship between a man and a woman begins with a separation, how much more should our relationship with the Lord be the same seeing as it is the pattern for marriage?

Now please note that I am not saying that all of these influences are wrong or sinful, but they can be influences that can vie for our devotion and commitment. Even the best family traditions and practices can become somewhat of a stumbling block. How is this possible? Often the biggest hindrance to the “best” is something that is good, not evil.

It can be godly habits that often can lead us astray especially when they become comfortable or routine. Keeping our relationship with Christ vital and the central point to our lives, like any good relationship, will take time and effort. Just because some things worked for mom and dad does not mean they will necessarily work for me, especially since God knows what He needs to do to get me in the place of complete surrender to Him.

As well I am sure we all know of or can at least think of some marriages or families where the influences of a dysfunctional upbringing have wrought havoc in an otherwise stable family. Wounds or painful experiences from a parent or one in a significant role can become fodder for arguments for a couple, and things like “you treat me just like my mom did!” or “you sound just like my dad!” are uttered out of these painful memories. Can we imagine then if these things happen in our natural relationships that they might carry over into and affect our spiritual lives as well? I think we can more than imagine it, I would say many of us live under these kinds of past influences. This is where we come back to the Psalmist’s instruction, to forget your own people and your father’s house.

I know for many there are painful memories that seem insurmountable and yet I also know there are many who can testify that the loving encouragement and nurturing of a spouse, a close friend or mentor can bring healing and forgiveness, even restoration to the most troubled of upbringings. So it is with the Lord, His love is perfect and can overcome as well as hear our past hurts and wounds. His love is sufficient IF we are willing to surrender to Him. But that is a topic for another time.

Our parents as well often directly influence our view of God. Children often “see” God like they see their fathers. That is a hard burden to shoulder, and yet it should challenge us as parents to be a godly influence in our homes. We may not always be able to affect the perception but we can determine the reality of the way we live, interact and influence our children and others we have the opportunity to work with.

In the end I believe that God wants us to look at the things that pull us away or keep us away from Him. Whether good or bad influences, anything that competes for our loyalty or our devotion to the Lord is something that needs to be left behind or forgotten in our pursuit of God.

What is our level of commitment to the Lord? How committed are we to Him, His Kingdom and His will lived out in our lives?

If you will Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; then the King will greatly desire your beauty. He loves and desires you, and all the more as you leave behind everything else that draws you away from complete devotion to Him.

Because He is your Lord, worship Him!

ENMITY

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

What is enmity? It means to be hostile towards, to be an enemy. As a part of the curse God would put, meaning to fix or station, hostility between the serpent and the woman. But more interesting is that this same hostility would be between her seed and the serpent's seed.

Now I am sure we all understand that the “seed” promised in this verse is Christ who would be bruised by the serpent, the Devil and the Devil would have his head crushed by Jesus.

But I also want to look at another aspect of “seed”, that of offspring or children. We all know that we are the children of Eve, being human beings. But is there more here? If Christ is the seed and we are in Christ then are we included in this seed? Even more interesting is who the seed of the serpent is.

Look at the following verses:
Matthew13:38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
1 John 3:10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Notice also how many times people are referred to as sons of the Devil:
Acts 13:10 and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

So we can see that there appears to be a distinction between those who are of God and those who are of the Devil. We see this throughout scripture but we also see this in practical life. Colossians 1:13 says He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son which means we can be brought from one kingdom to the other. That is a large part of the church’s job, to bring people to a knowledge of God and be delivered from one kingdom to another.


But there is a more fundamental battle that brings brings the idea of enmity to our daily lives. It is well portrayed in Romans 6-8 with 8:7 being “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.”

The word “hostile” in the Greek the the word for hostility, in the King James Version it is translated enmity. The greatest battle of the universe being played out right now is still the oldest battle in the universe, between the seed of the woman and the seed of the Devil. We see it played out in our lives as the battle between the Spirit of God in us through faith in Christ and the flesh we live in dominated by sin and under the control of the Devil and all evil. Every day we live out enmity!

Romans 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.
James 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of (at enmity with) God.


A big question then arises, where has enmity gone? There does not seem to be the battle with sin anymore in our society, or more alarmingly in the church. It is almost as if that battle of the ages was relegated to the archives of experience as outdated and irrelevant to our modern lifestyle. Is it?

Where has the enmity between Godliness and Evil gone? Where has that enmity in our lives gone? Where is the struggle against sin? I hardly think the absence of struggle means we have overcome sin (would to God this were true) but more that we no longer struggle with it. Oh, we still stand against the ‘biggies’ of sin in our lives but the small skirmishes have been left behind as unimportant. We neither struggle against nor with sin anymore to a large extent.  Sin in the believer is seen today as normative, as if it were an undeniable consequence of being human in today’s world.  Those who would call against sin in the believer’s experience are judged to be either fanatical, judgmental, unloving or too out of touch with reality.

Leaving behind “enmity” is much like ignoring the little foxes spoken of in the Song of Solomon 2:15 NIV
     Catch for us the foxes,
     the little foxes
     that ruin the vineyards,
     our vineyards that are in bloom.

The following is an excerpt from the Biblical Illustrator by Rev. Joseph S. Exell, M.A. written in 1905 on this verse. Let these words sink in, listen and ask the Lord if there are areas where we need to recapture the concept and practice of enmity:

v. 15 Little foxes
I. What the little foxes are--what we are to understand as represented by them.
1. A little lie. Not a great, black, ugly lie, enough to make conscience cry out, and to startle yourself and everybody that knows of it, but a little untruth that does not hurt and need not frighten anybody.
2. A little theft. It was only a penny or halfpenny or farthing--only a bit of pencil or a bit of ribbon--only a sweetmeat or a pin. It was only some little unfairness in the class or in the game, that got you a place or credit that did not belong to you.
3. A little outburst of temper. You were provoked, and flew into a passion, and you looked or spoke or acted your anger.
4. A little act of disobedience, refusing to do, or putting off doing, or not doing pleasantly and cheerfully, what a parent asked you to do. You say you must do something else first.
5. A little oath, or slang expression, or low bad word.
6. A little act of selfishness.
7. A little yielding to indolence, laziness.
8. A little breaking of the Sabbath.
9. A little omission of prayer.
10. A little yielding to envy or jealousy.

II. The harm the little foxes do.
1. Little sins are real sins. A little fox is a real fox. A little tiger is a real tiger. A little serpent is a real serpent. The smallness of it does not alter its nature.
2. Little sins are apt to be little thought of. That is one great part of their danger. You say “it is only a little fault. Who would think anything of that? It is only a little fox, what harm can it do?” The little sin does not ruffle your conscience, or make you unhappy, or make other people think much the worse of you for it. That is the worst of the whole case. That is one of the strongest reasons why you should be afraid of it.
3. Little sins prepare the way for big ones, and form habits of sin…

III. How to catch them and kill them. “Take us the foxes, the little foxes.” Have you ever seen a party setting out for a day’s fox-hunting? How eager all are--men, horses, and dogs. They are prepared to run any distance, to cross rivers, to leap over walls and hedges, each more in earnest than the other to catch the fox. Their first concern is to discover where he is, and then they set out after him with a will. And so your first concern should be to discover what and where the little foxes are, that are spoiling your vines. And having learned that, your next business is to catch them and kill them. There are two hands with which you must seek to catch them. Neither will do alone. Both must go together. These hands are prayer and pains…
(J. H. Wilson, D. D.)

What a powerful call to enmity with the world and sin. Let us once again put enmity between us and the enemy of our souls with his works.

…There is no glory without death…

“Tell me, where are the ones with the heart for warfare -- the ones that died to say, “This is the price you pay”? Step up! There is no glory without death. Step up. Who will answer the call? Death is glory!”
(Lyrics from Phoenix by For Today)

Do we understand the meaning in these words? These words do not glorify physical death but death to self; the voluntary laying down of ones right to self-determination and selfishness. Do we understand that death to self is not the final goal of the Christian life but the beginning? How far have we fallen back from the original call of Christ and made it an invitation to “a relationship”?

Look at the words Jesus used with His disciples and early followers:

-- If anyone would follow me he must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; Matt10:38; Luke 14:27)

-- Whoever comes to me and does not hate ... even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26; Matt 10:37)

The disciples dropped everything, left their fathers with the nets, left their tax collector tables, and followed Him.

Even a casual reading of Romans chapter 6 gives us a tremendous look at what Watchman Nee called “The Normal Christian Life”.

Why was it so easy for the early believers to leave everything and follow Jesus and yet it is so hard for us to do the same? Has human nature changed that much? Has society changed so drastically? Is Western culture really that influential on our modern day? Any number of these could be true and yet in the end does it really matter? Circumstances and times have changed but the call has not changed. We all have to deal with the realities of the call of the Gospel. We have to come to grips with the fact of our choice regarding discipleship and the inevitable surrender of the will.  The question is not ‘am I willing to die for Christ’, although this is a valid question we all should give careful thought to.  The question is whether I will die to myself and live for Christ and Christ alone!

The first lines of this post are a sample of the lyrics of a song by a Christian hardcore band called For Today. They are a group of ex-drug addicts who have been saved from the brink of destruction are now devoted to preaching the Gospel to whoever will listen. Their message is hard hitting and relevant to the times. Having had a good opportunity to study Wesleyan Holiness and finding the message to be something today’s Christian desperately needs I find myself drawn to authors and musicians that have a no compromise message. They are a continual reminder to me that (# 1) I have not arrived yet and that (#2) not achieving #1 yet should empower me to strive harder to achieve that goal instead of using it as an excuse for a lack of self-discipline or lack of commitment. I have to agree with Paul, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 

Keeping Your Focus

A while ago I received the newsletter from a wonderful ministry, Faith Mountain Ministries which is the ministry of Rev. Henry Vanderbush (www.vanderbushministries.com). Henry's son Bill wrote incredible article called Keep Your Focus. The article has to do with 2 Kings 2:1-12, the story of Elijah and Elisha.

9 “When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me." 10 And he said, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so." 11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 And Elisha saw it and he cried, "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.”

Bill Vanderbush then says the following:

“Now consider this test. All Elisha has to do is watch Elijah while he’s being taken up. But then God sends this spectacular show of power and glory. Here’s the point. In order to qualify for the greater anointing that your heart longs for, you have to be able to function with focus on what God has called you to, and not be distracted, even by the supernatural things going on around you that are from Him. Keep your eyes focused, and your heart pure, set on one voyage, fixed on His voice, set your gaze toward nothing else but Him.”

Elijah was taken up in the whirlwind.  As I read it, the reason for the chariots and horses of fire was to separate the two men from each other.

I believe this is an important message for believers today. I want you to consider it for a moment. The chariots and horses were from God, not the Devil. There can be times when the manifestations of God’s power can pull out focus away from the goal.  Elisha had to make sure Elijah did not leave his sight when he was taken up in the whirlwind, this was the only requirement to obtain his request for a double portion of Elijah’s anointing.

It is one thing to consider that difficult circumstances can draw our attention away from our focus on the Lord but when good things, even things of God, can draw our attention away from keeping our eyes on Jesus that is something different.  Mountain top experiences are wonderful and necessary, but if we let the experiences become necessary to have ‘fellowship with the Lord’ then they are distracting us from the right focus.  Let us make sure our Ladder Times serve their purpose, to provide confirmation of God’s presence, to give us the opportunities to meet with and if necessary make necessary changes to our lives.  Don’t let them become the focus we strive towards.

Why LadderTimes?

Now that I am some 3 and a half years since I started this blog I though I might post another entry here!  Ok, so consistency has not been a big thing with me the last while.  To update since the last post all so long ago, I have been cancer free since the surgery in January of 2009.  It was a 12 month recovery that was one of the toughest things I have been through.  Not only the physical but the emotional and others “-al”s as well.  I was off of work for 10 weeks.  3 months after I came back to work my position was terminated and I was let go with no severance pay or anything.  I spent 15 months looking for work and finally found another position with another company.  But the Lord has been good!  The reason I entitled this posting “Why LaderTimes” is to try to explain and explore what this blog was originally about and what it may become.

I chose LadderTimes (please note, not Latter Times) in response to a sermon I had preached at a Baccalaureate service in Iowa several years ago.  In Genesis 28 we have the story of Jacob leaving his home to go to Paddan-aram to find a wife among this mother’s people,”of Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.” (Gen 28:5).  While on the journey, in verses 11-22 is a recounting of Jacob’s dream:

Gen 28:11-15 ESV  And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.  (12)  And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!  (13)  And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.  (14)  Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  (15)  Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

There are times in our walk with the Lord that we will have similar experiences; whether it is journeying  to a place we have not been to before, or walking through circumstances we have not gone through before, or troubling times, etc.  In these time we can have an epiphany or manifestation, especially of the Lord or His nature or character, etc. and it can leave us like Jacob saying "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."

In my walk with the Lord, one of those times was the cancer diagnosis, the treatment and recovery.  My original intent was to write about the recovery experience and how the Lord had revealed Himself.  Unfortunately one thing I lost over time was the password to my login!

So, here I am again, hoping (but not promising) to continue the journey of sharing and posting what the Lord has been revealing to me through His Spirit, the Word, His people and the incredible life He has given us.

I hope this will be a blessing, I am sure it will be to me as I continue to encounter Christ in daily life.

So, shall we start again?  (and this time I cannot blame the drugs for the ramblings!)

Blessings!